Posted by Some of you may have heard that I wrote a tome of a Dragon Age fanfiction – like, close to 400,000 type of tome. It was a story that I wrote for me after playing Dragon Age: Origins, and spawned from about two or three scenes that sprung into my head. For the four Saturdays of Dragon Age Month, I’ll be posting snippets of my fanfiction over here. If you like what you’ve read, check out my Dragon Age series on Archive of Our Own for more!
The following excerpt is one of the scenes that sparked the first fanfiction, I Will Call You Home: A Recounting of the Fifth Blight.
Although, can I just say that it has been very difficult to choose sections that won’t spoil my own story, or don’t deal with mature content (violence, adult themes, etc.), and still make some semblance of sense standing on their own? Having said that…
Content warning: adult themes, implied violence
”
“You would seek out Andraste’s ashes without me?” came a voice behind Renya after Nyviel had left her. The familiar voice had a strange tone to it tonight.
“Hello, Leliana,” Renya said as normally as she could, turning her back to the forest. Her mouth dropped open a little. The bard was wearing a purple dress that she had gotten in Denerim, and it hugged her body alluringly. She blinked and gave herself a little shake. “What are you… shouldn’t you be resting?”
Leliana continued walking toward her as if she hadn’t heard.
“You would leave me here, alone, while you seek something so precious to me? You? A heathen? One who does not respect or even acknowledge Andraste?”
Renya frowned. Ignoring the reference to heathens, she said, “Leliana, Andraste was a friend to the elves. You told me that.” She noticed the red rimming still around Leliana’s eyes. “Come, let me take you back to your tent. You are still sick…”
“Would you defile the Chantry?” Leliana asked, still advancing on Renya with a swish of her hips, caught perfectly by the dim firelight behind her. “Laugh in the face of the Maker?”
“No…?” Renya said, backing up a little. She wasn’t sure what was wrong with Leliana, but at least she wasn’t armed, the elf noted with a little relief.
“But you would break your promise to me,” Leliana said smoothly.
“No, Leliana, I would not do that. I want you to come with us, but I do not want you to become more ill…”
“So this is for my sake?” Leliana mocked, still coming toward her. Renya backed into a tree and she swallowed, for once afraid of the bard. She had her swords, but how could she use them against her?
“For who else’s well-being would I be concerned?”
“You do not wish to dispose of me to pursue another?” Leliana said, stepping close to the elf. She placed her hands on Renya’s shoulders. “Perhaps one of your kind?”
Renya’s heart was pounding. Her brows knit together more tightly. “Leliana, what are you talking about…?”
The bard traced her hands down the elf’s arms and back up again. One of her hands snaked up Renya’s neck and began to gently caress the ear, lingering there. She pressed herself into the elf firmly.
“Leliana!”
“Does she touch your ears just right?” she purred, gently tracing the ridges of skin inside the elf’s ear. She switched to rubbing behind it and smiled as Renya’s breathing increased. “Does she understand your teasing better than me?” she murmured into Renya’s ear, her breath making the ear tremble a little and goose bumps appear on Renya’s skin. Her fingers continued to gently rub Renya’s ear while her other hand snaked down Renya’s body, pulling on buckles and ties.
She leaned in a little closer. “I could make you forget her, you know…”
Briefly, Renya saw Merrill’s olive eyes, innocent smile, and vallaslin. She was laughing at something Renya had said, and Renya could feel the tingle of magic power as the first held her hand. But in an instant Merrill was gone, and Renya was lost in the clear blue eyes of the Orlesian bard in front of her. How had she never noticed Leliana’s eyes were the same color as the sky on an autumn day?
“Leliana…” she whispered. “Please… stop…”
Her words fell on deaf ears as Leliana’s fingers worked under the now-loosened armor, and pushed their way under the leather and the warm under-tunic onto Renya’s skin. She smiled as she felt the elf’s hands come to rest on her waist, and rubbed against the elf slightly, pulling a soft hum from Renya’s throat. It was fitting, too, that the movement teased Leliana nearly as much. Renya’s hands lowered to the bard’s hips.
“Lelia…” the elf said again breathlessly. “Don’t…”
Leliana heard the pet name and her heart fluttered a little, but she continued, her hand slowly caressing its way around Renya’s body until she began tracing abstract patterns on her back. The elf shivered.
“You have teased me for so long,” the bard said, elongating the last two words dramatically. She leaned in and hovered millimeters from Renya’s lips. She watched as Renya licked her lips nervously, and waited until she leaned forward to pull away, smiling at Renya’s frustrated sigh. “Like that,” she murmured, leaning in again and starting to kiss Renya’s neck. She hovering, waiting, as she continued to caress Renya’s ear and trace patterns on her back.
“I… Lelia…”
“You want this…” Leliana whispered, her lips just missing Renya’s as she spoke.
“…Yes…”
“You want this,” the bard murmured again, more suggestively. “Don’t you?”
“Yes.” It was true. Here, now, this was what Renya wanted, and her heart broke and thrilled at the idea. “Yes,” she breathed again, even as part of her brain was trying to tell her to stop.
Leliana smiled. Suddenly, Renya’s hands left her hips and were gripping her shoulders. The elf pressed back against her body, and green eyes were boring into her blue ones.
“No…no!” Renya said urgently. She closed her eyes and shook her head quickly, gripping Leliana’s shoulders more tightly. “Not like this…” she added without thinking.
But Leliana was intent on maintaining control. She leaned into her again, pinning her to the tree once more. “Like what? Unexpected? Willing? Forceful?” she offered, each word silkier than the last, drawing swirls on the top of Renya’s ears.
“Up against a tree in the middle of the woods,” Renya answered helplessly. She took a ragged breath. One selfish act wouldn’t be so wrong, would it? No, said another voice. Not like this, not with Leliana… “You don’t deserve… You don’t…”
She is just like Marjolaine… Leliana rubbed her nose against Renya’s cheek. You are inconvenient, and will be left behind… You are broken, unloveable. Marjolaine turned her back on you so easily, and now, so does this elf… You know what to do… You must do it first…
“What don’t I deserve?” Leliana said dangerously, leaning her head in again, pressing her hips against the elf’s.
Me… Renya answered silently. Someone who has her own secrets. “This…” Renya breathed, unaware of the treacherous thoughts engulfing Leliana’s mind. She blinked as if clearing her thoughts. “You deserve…” Her mind went briefly to the beautiful, soft, protected clearing she had shown Merrill so many years ago, now seeming farther away then ever.
Leliana continued to tease the elf, her fingers rubbing the back of the pointed ears delicately while she pressed more of her body against Renya. She is putty in your hands now, Leliana.
“You deserve… tapestries on the walls, and colored glass windows. And fireplaces, and flowers, and fine clothes, and being inside and…” She racked her brain for anything else Leliana had ever said she liked, not noticing that there was something cool pressing onto her back as she stared intensely into the blue eyes in front of her.
Do what you came here to do, pretty thing.
“And a bed. A nice, soft one, like the one you had in Orlais, with cotton sheets, ones so nice you could not wait to get into them. That is what you deserve, Lelia…”
We are the same…
A clang caught both of their attention. Still somewhat entangled with each other, they looked down to see a very small dagger, small enough to fit up a sleeve, lying on the stones at Renya’s feet. The elf looked at Leliana with a small frown, not understanding.
“Leliana…?”
Leliana pulled away, looking horrified. “No, no, I am not like her,” she said, staring at the knife.
“I know you are not,” Renya replied, not sure what she was talking about. She reached down and picked up the blade.
“We’re different. I would not do that. I am different, I am!”
“You are different, Leliana. You are… you are like no one else,” Renya replied soothingly, advancing toward the retreating bard. She held out the knife in her open palm, handle toward Leliana. Leliana looked at the knife and then up into Renya’s face, full of shame. Renya noticed how sickly she looked.
“Come,” Renya said gently. She took another slow step forward, as if trying to not scare away a frightened animal. She lowered the hand with the knife and offered her empty one. “Let me take you back to your tent…”
“No, no! Get away from me! You must stay away!” Leliana turned and ran back to her tent, throwing the flap aside and diving inside. From where she stood, Renya could hear Leliana’s sobbing. She glanced back at the knife still in her hand and sighed, returning to her patrol and fastening her armor tightly around herself once again. She slipped the small knife into her belt with a shake of her head.“
Revisiting these has reaffirmed that I really do need an editor. At any rate, thanks for reading!
Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you soon!
~Athena
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